Wales Looking To Maintain Malaysian Adventure By Seeing Off Kazakhstan In Hockey World League Clash

Wales will bid to reach the Women’s Hockey World League Round 2 semi-finals when they face Kazakhstan in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.

A 3-0 win over Thailand sealed second place in their group and booked a place in the quarter-finals.

At stake for Wales is a semi-final spot in Malaysia where they would then play for a place in July’s World League semi-finals which is a qualification event for the next World Cup.

Head coach Kevin Johnson said: “This is unchartered territory for us and therefore we will keep our preparation the same.

“We know that to continue our improvement we must keep working hard on our processes and understand by doing this well, we will have every chance of progressing to the next round.

“Kazakhstan are a little unknown to us, and so we will prepare diligently and take the game as a positive challenge.”

Johnson reckons his squad will take confidence from the victory over the higher ranked Thailand to finish with two wins from their three pool games.

Wales lost their opener to pool winners Italy, but then thrashed Singapore 7-0.

Johnson added: “It was a tough challenge against a slightly higher ranked side, who play a very direct style, but overall I was pleased with our patience and management of the game throughout.

“We scored goals at key times, which relieved any pressure, and keeping another clean sheet was a target we were pleased to deliver on.

“We will push hard now in our quarter final, as we believe we are capable of reaching the semi-final given the improvements we’ve made during the tournament so far.”